Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 January 1896 — Coyotes and Cattle. [ARTICLE]

Coyotes and Cattle.

A novel scheme for saving his cattle from the dr gyns of coyotes that infest the region has been hit upon by a rancher of Glen Rock, Wash. He has placed bells on the necks of a great number of cattle in his herds, and the result has been to scare the' coyotes away. In the two months since he belled his herds he Has not lost n single animal, while previously his lots averaged at least one steer a day. Coyotes are becoming more of a pest every season in many parts of Washington and Oregon, despite all the efforts of the cattlemen and fanners to exterminate them. Thousands of dollars are spent every year i.i waglug war on the beasts, but witlt little result. Poison availed for a time, but now the coyotes refuse to touch the poisoned carcasses of steers strewn about for their consumption. The pnly way of killing them is by shooting them, and this is a feeble and wholly inadequate means.* Occasionally tha residents of a district combine and have a grand round-up hunt, driving the coyotes toward the center of a circle and slaughtering them there, and thia is the only means of appreciably thinning them out occasionally. In some regions the packs of gray wolves are as numerous and troublesome as the coyotes. The coyotes are particularly adept-chicken thieves, and, indeed, are a general pest around the farm yards.